Ethiopia Literacy Boost: Midline Report 2013

This report examines the results of a learner background survey and reading assessment conducted in the fall of 2012. The survey and reading assessments covered 500 grade 3 learners throughout 25 schools in the Dendi District of the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. The 15 Literacy Boost schools in this sample had previous classes of students who experienced the program in grades 1 – 3 in 2010 for three months and all of the 2011/2012 school year. The data gathered from these schools is analyzed in part compared to a previous baseline assessment conducted in fall 2010. Hence, as Literacy Boost activities commenced in 2010, this midline assessment analyzes students’ reading skills approximately 1.5 years into the Literacy Boost program. A difference-in-difference analysis was used to compare groups of students.

The difference in learning outcomes between the 2010 and 2012 samples paints a general picture of how students learn as they progress from grades 1 and 2 to grade 3. The 2012 grade 3 students significantly outperform the 2010 grade 3 students on six of the seven basic literacy sub-tests: concepts about print (CAP), letter identification, common word knowledge, fluency, accuracy and reading comprehension. We hypothesize that this due to the enriched experiences they had in grades 1 and 2, stemming from the previous years of the Literacy Boost program.